Starting September 9, Porsche and Audi will be the latest non-Tesla brands to utilize the Supercharger network. The two automakers announced that some of their owners will get adapters that allow them to charge via the NACS port, which Tesla developed and opened up to other automakers. The rollout comes after the Volkswagen Group, which owns both Porsche and Audi, announced that it would implement NACS compatibility for Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche and Scout Motors in December 2023.
Porsche is kicking off its NACS adoption with a “soft launch,” where existing owners of Taycan and Macan Electric models have to reserve a free NACS to DC adapter with the My Porsche app to connect to the Tesla Supercharger network. During this initial phase, drivers of compatible Porsche EVs have to use the Tesla app at Superchargers, but will eventually be able to charge with the My Porsche app in “the coming months,” according to Porsche. Like Porsche, Audi is getting its own branded adapter that will arrive with newer 2025 model year options, including its Q6 e-tron, A6 Sportback e-tron and e-tron GT. Notably, Audi said its Q4 e-tron won’t currently have access to Tesla Superchargers.
For Porsche, any Taycan and Macan Electric from model year 2026 onward will include a free NACS adapter. However, Porsche EVs from model year 2024 or older will have to buy the adapter from Porsche’s online shop or dealerships, which will go for $185. Porsche and Audi are also working on software updates to show Tesla Superchargers on their navigation systems. Despite Porsche and Audi now gaining access to the Supercharger network, Volkswagen Group’s other subsidiaries, including Lamborghini and Bentley, still haven’t committed to adopting NACS.
It’s a dynamic time right now in the automotive industry. Many manufacturers that previously pledged themselves to dive head-first into the wonderful world of electrification are now pumping their literal and metaphorical brakes on the idea, leaning back into hybrids, plug-ins, and various other transitional means of propulsion.
Audi is one of those brands that has been softening its stance on the EV front lately, pledging to continue supporting internal combustion-powered machines so long as the market demands. But its new concept unveiled today in Milan gives us a striking view of a next generation of EVs — and hybrids, and others — that will wear four rings on the nose.
It’s called the Concept C, and it’s part of a movement Audi brass have called “the radical next.” It’s meant to be something of a reboot for the brand’s design efforts, a back-to-basics project that starts on the inside with a dramatically simplified interior design.
While many modern Audis feature one or two giant touchscreens that dominate the dash, in the Concept C, there’s just a pure dashboard with a subtle, illuminated vertical slot in the middle. Controls are physical and chunky, designed to have a strong sense of weight and tactility, featuring what the car’s designers describe as the “Audi click.”
It’s definitely a major departure for Audi, but there is a nod to modern sensibilities with a 10.4-inch touchscreen. It’s hidden, tucking itself behind the dashboard when not needed and quickly swiveling into view when summoned. The car also features buttons and touch-sensitive surfaces that disappear behind the dashboard, a row of backlit controls that only appear when needed.
The outside of the car is a substantial reboot, too. In this new concept, you’ll see some similarities to the brand’s last great roadster, the TT, which went out of production in 2023. But to see the key inspiration for the Concept C, you have to go back a little further, back to the Auto Union Grand Prix machines of the 1930s.
Specifically, Audi is referencing the Type C, which raced from the pre-Formula One days of 1936 to 1937. That car’s shape and upright grille definitely carry on in the Concept C, but this new road car has one feature that vintage racing machines lacked: a folding hardtop convertible.
The Concept C is actually the first Audi to sport such a top, giving it the look of a coupe but the open-air design of a roadster. The louvered rear and simple, tapered shape are dipped in a colored paint meant to emulate the subtle warmth of titanium.
One thing that tapered shape doesn’t allow is a rear window. Like the Polestar 4, the Concept C takes an extreme stance towards rearward visibility by featuring none at all. That rear-view mirror you see hanging from the glass is digital. But, the fact that this car even has a rear-view mirror, plus side mirrors and windshield wipers, hint that this thing is probably close to production-ready.
When it comes to the more practical matter of what makes it go, and for how far and how quickly, sadly, we don’t have a lot of details just yet. Again, Audi has said that this will be an EV, but that the design will influence a new generation of Audis powered by all sorts of options, including hybrid and internal combustion, “as the transition to electric mobility progresses.”
This car, though, is most definitely battery powered, though the company has yet to share any more details beyond that. Audi says it is rear-wheel drive, which would point to a single-motor at the back, but a future version with Quattro all-wheel drive seems like a sure bet.
This car’s predecessor, the TT, was actually based on the Volkswagen Golf chassis, which gave it front-wheel drive to begin with. However, if this new machine is to share its foundations with anything, it’s much more likely to be Porsche’s upcoming electric 718, as previewed in the Mission R.
But for now that’s just speculation, and again, this is just a concept. Audi isn’t saying when a car like this might see production, but it is a machine that is destined to become something you can buy. That’ll be good news to anyone who misses the dearly departed TT. If an eventual production-based Concept C still looks this good when it hits dealers, it very well might make just as many waves as its predecessor.
‘AUDI’ in China has started series production of the electric E5 Sportback – created specifically for the Chinese market – at a plant in Anting, Shanghai. The car is the first to have been developed for a new AUDI-branded intelligent electric family of models under a strategic partnership between Audi and its Chinese partner SAIC.
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AUDI (all characters capitalised) is Audi’s new China-only brand. Audi said last year that the new brand AUDI – without the four rings logo but spelled in four capital letters – signals both the connection to and differentiation from the sister brand. Gernot Döllner, Audi CEO said: “By launching this new brand for electric and intelligent models in China, Audi is breaking new ground to tap into new and more tech-savvy customer segments.”
AUDI brand logo also illuminated at the rear
Buyers in China can now preorder the AUDI E5 Sportback model, with the first vehicles planned to be delivered in September.
Fermín Soneira, CEO of the China-dedicated AUDI brand, said: “Every vehicle from the AUDI brand embodies the best of both worlds: iconic design, premium quality, technical precision, emotional driving dynamics, combined with China’s cutting-edge technology, innovation and digital ecosystem. With pre-sales now launched alongside production, the E5 Sportback enters the market fully equipped to deliver an uncompromising experience for Chinese customers. This milestone marks the beginning of a new era of ICVs.”
It’s an AUDI not an Audi and there are no four rings
Dedicated production facility for AUDI models
To manufacture AUDI models, the two partners have established a dedicated production facility on the existing SAIC Volkswagen site in Anting, Shanghai. Initially, around 700 employees will produce the AUDI E5 Sportback there. Two additional AUDI models are scheduled to follow within the next two years. The manufacturing operations in Anting are defined by a high degree of automation, state-of-the-art technologies – including machine learning for quality monitoring – and a fully digitalized production management system.
The four-door AUDI E5 Sportback, is described as a fully electric fastback, combining dynamic proportions, power outputs of up to 579 kW and a maximum range of 770km. Four distinct powertrains offer rear-wheel or quattro drive for a ‘dynamic driving experience’, accelerating from 0-100km/h in up to 3.4 seconds.
The car is built on a new Advanced Digitized Platform (ADP) and offers ‘next-generation connected vehicle functionality and full-car over the air updates’.
“Audi/AUDI starts E5 Sportback production and pre-sales in China” was originally created and published by Just Auto, a GlobalData owned brand.
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The board of German carmaker Audi is holding discussions with the works council over the company’s struggles.
“In difficult economic times, the works council and the company discuss how to avoid redundancies,” said Jörg Schlagbauer, head of the central works council.
A report by the Manager Magazin said Audi is seeking to cut several thousands jobs in Germany in the medium term, with around 4,500 jobs at risk including 2,000 in development alone.
Schlagbauer said: “We are in talks with the company about the content-related goals of making Audi weatherproof, but not yet in negotiations. We are seeking clear structures, faster decision-making, improved processes and more value creation at Audi.”
Audi employs around 54,000 people in Germany. In 2019, management and the works council agreed on a “socially responsible reduction of up to 9,500 jobs along the demographic curve by 2025.” According to Audi, the programme is largely complete.
An Audi spokeswoman emphasized that the company’s employment guarantee remains in place up to 2029, as confirmed by chief financial officer Jürgen Rittersberger on Tuesday.
However, new hires are to be “handpicked,” with a focus on increasing efficiency and competitiveness.
A TOP executive at Audi has tragically died after plunging from a 10,000ft mountain in Italy.
Fabrizio Longo, the director of Audi Italia, was hiking at the Cima Payer in the Adamello mountain on Saturday when he fell to his death.
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Top Audi boss Fabrizio Longo has died while climbing mountains in Italy
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Longo has led Audi’s Italian operations since 2012Credit: Getty
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Longo was a skilled hiker who loved visiting the mountains in ItalyCredit: Newsflash
The car boss, 62, reportedly climbed along a route equipped with fixed steel cables, ladders, and other aids.
Local media said that the incident occurred early in the afternoon and that Longo was an expert mountaineer.
Rescue operators rushed to the scene after a fellow climber who witnessed the tragedy called emergency services for help.
A helicopter team located Longo’s body some 700ft deep inside a gorge.
Now, the Prosecutor’s Office is investigating, and a date for the funeral will be set after Longo’s body is released to his family.
Longo was born in Rimini in 1962 and graduated in political science.
His career in the automotive industry began in 1987 at Fiat, where he held positions in marketing until he took responsibility for the Italian market for the Lancia brand in 2002.
The car boss, who joined Audi in 2012, loved visiting the Adamello mountain – and had contributed to protecting it over the years.
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Photo Illustration by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images.
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The news that a reported 3,700 Twitter TWTR employees were let go via email, was no surprise. However, it does call into question how badly advertising revenue will be hit as ad agencies try and figure out what the new Twitter will look like sans almost half of their employees.
Employees likely didn’t sleep well after getting an email on Thursday night telling them they would be notified what their future employment status was by 9:00 a.m. PST on Friday by email with the header “Your Role At Twitter.” It would be sent to their personal accounts if they are being let go, or to their work accounts if they would be staying, they were notified in an unsigned email.
The company shut all offices on Friday “to help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data.” Some employees who had been sleeping in their offices due to heavy time demands from Musk were shocked as they were escorted out of the building.
Many employees got early warnings as their access to work platforms was shut off at about 8:00 p.m. and their email accounts were turned off at 11:00 p.m. “It’s a break-up by text,” a person affected by the layoffs said.
“My entire team is gone,” one person impacted by the layoffs in New York told a reporter. They worked on a team of more than 30. Another employee estimated that 90% of their team was gone.
Most of the management of the ad sales team, including Chief Marketing Officer Leslie Berland, VP of Global Client Solutions Jean-Phillipe Maheu and Chief Customer Officer Sarah Personette, had already been let go by Chief Twit Elon Musk, who has been trying to placate advertisers by doing in-person and video meetings.
Three of the worst hit teams were product and engineering for advertising, Redbird (the infrastructure team that runs data centers), and corporate communications.
Musk’s strategy to butter up advertisers has clearly not worked. General Mills GIS Inc., snack food manufacturer Mondalez International Inc., Pfizer PFE Inc. and Volkswagen AG’s Audi are joining a growing list of companies “pausing” campaigns on Twitter, according to The Wall Street Journal.
One ad agency executive told The Journal that about 20 of its clients are no longer advertising on Twitter, and that’s just one agency. Musk himself gave a clue as to how bad things are when he tweeted that the company has had a massive drop in ad revenue since he acquired it a week ago. He said it was “due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists.” He added, “Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America.”
What he failed to consider is the fact that, like stock market investors, the thing that advertisers like the least is uncertainty. If they don’t know exactly where and when their ad is being placed, and more importantly, what the demographic will be, they will simply stop their campaigns.
Another issue is the mood of the remaining employees given Musk has no hesitancy in quickly letting people go if they don’t carry out his vision. Many employees being laid off under the plan which has been dubbed “Project Tundra,” are being given only 60 days of severance pay. Twitter Chief Accounting Officer Robert Kaiden left the company after the list of layoffs was solidified, one of the last remaining Twitter execs to leave the company.
Musk may in fact be losing even more employees than those he has laid off. Morale is likely to plummet with the massive layoffs paired with the fact that everyone working at home is being required to return to the office. Axios reports that employees are being given as little as 60 days to relocate to a Twitter office.
Surprisingly, Twitter did not take down a flurry of tweets from prominent California Attorney Lisa Bloom (@LisaBloom) late Thursday night including:
· Hey Twitter employees getting laid off tomorrow! IMPORTANT INFO from a CA employment attorney (me): CA’s “WARN” law requires Twitter to give you 60 days notice of a massive layoffs. A layoff of 50+ employees within a 30 day period qualifies. I know you didn’t get that notice;
· This WARN law applies to all California employers of 75+ employees, which obviously includes Twitter with its thousands of employees. Purpose of the law is to give laid off employee’s time to figure out how to handle this disruption. And Elon completely ignores it;
· Twitter will be liable for all of these (civil penalties, lost compensation, lost medical and other benefits) & attorney’s fees for 60 days it failed to give workers notice. This flagrant violation of worker’s rights is outrageous. Who’s in for a class action? LET’S DO THIS;
· Also, CA’s strong antidiscrimination laws apply to Twitter’s big layoff tomorrow. Are people of color, women and/or older workers disproportionately chosen for example? This was done so hastily, so slapdash, so that the world’s richest man gen get even richer faster;
· Employees laid off in violation of the WARN Act receive back pay at the employee’s final rate or a 3 year average of compensation, whichever is higher. Twitter would also be liable for workers’ medical expenses that would have been covered under an employee benefit plan;
· Twitter employees, DO NOT SIGN IGN ANYTHING when you’re laid off. Consult with an attorney first. Buried in the fine print may be a waiver of your rights under CA and Federal law. Those employers like Twitter who violate the WARN Act face civil penalties of $500/day for each violation. With thousands of employees this could be significant, though maybe not to Elon; and
· We’ll see how long Twitter lets my posts stay up. If they take them down tonight, before the layoffs, that means they were on notice of the law I cite and chose to punish me rather than follow it. That’s consciousness of guilt and I’d use it as the basis for punitive damages.
A class action lawsuit was indeed filed against Twitter for not giving enough notice to employees prior to the layoffs by Shannon Liss-Riordan, who unsuccessfully sued Tesla in June of 2022 when the company cut about 10% of their workforce.
However, Musk apparently has already thought this through by keeping people on the payroll who are laid off. The New York Times received an email from a worker who was notified that her job had been “impacted” but that they would stay employed through a separation date in February.
Twitter owner Elon Musk’s plan to right the social media company’s financial ship while also loosening its content moderation rules could face early headwinds, with several large companies taking a pause on Twitter ads until they have a fuller view of how the platform will look under his leadership.
In this photo illustration, the image of Elon Musk is displayed on a computer screen and the logo of … [+] Twitter on a mobile phone in Ankara, Turkey, on October 6, 2022. (Muhammed Selim Korkutata / Anadolu Agency)
Anadolu Agency
Key Facts
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that General Mills, Pfizer, Audi, Volkswagen and Mondelez International Inc.—the maker of Oreos—stopped advertising on Twitter after Musk took over the company, in part due to concerns about how Twitter will moderate content.
Automakers Ford and General Motors told Forbes last week they will not be buying ad space on Twitter until they better understand the platform’s future.
Advertising company Interpublic Group, whose clients include CVS and Nintendo, has reportedly recommended its clients temporarily stop buying Twitter ads.
Havas Media—another advertising firm—is also telling clients it’s best to pause their Twitter advertising, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Forbes.
Tangent
Musk recently told investors he wants to triple the number of daily users who see ads on Twitter, according to the Washington Post.
What To Watch For
Musk is reportedly planning to fire 50% of Twitter’s roughly 7,500-person staff starting Friday, prompting concerns the cuts could impact content moderation and security on the website. He’s already fired several top executives, including some who worked with advertisers.
Contra
Possibly seeking to ease concerns about the platform’s direction, Musk tweeted an open letter to advertisers last week promising Twitter would not become a “free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences” under his leadership. He also said each user would be able to “choose your desired experience according to your preferences.”
Key Background
Musk claimed he wanted to buy Twitter for the good of humanity since he believes it is a “digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner.” He suggested before purchasing the company he would cut down moderation sensitivity to allow all speech protected by law, and would allow polarizing banned figures back onto the platform, including former President Donald Trump. A spike in hate speech was reported immediately after Musk took over as Twitter owner late last week as some users appeared intent on testing the new owner’s boundaries, with the Network Contagion Research Institiute finding use of the n-word rose more than 500% over the course of 12 hours, while reports of antisemitic, misogynistic and anti-LGBTQ+ language have been rampant. Banned accounts, including Trump’s, will remain in limbo for at least the next few weeks, Musk told civil rights leaders Wednesday. The billionaire said Twitter will create a “content moderation council” that will determine a “clear process” for allowing banned users back on the platform. The council “will certainly include the civil rights community and groups who face hate-fueled violence,” Musk said.
Surprising Fact
Musk has also pointed to an enhanced Twitter Blue subscription service as a way of increasing revenue, but his proposal to charge $8 a month for users to acquire or keep a verified check mark has been widely panned. A Forbes analysis found some 10.4 million users would have to buy into the subscription service to cover the company’s debts—about 25 times more than the 400,000 accounts that have been verified for free.
